IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

One of the many wonderful things about our school is that as teachers we are constantly reflecting and trying to better our practices.  This week Mrs. Grotjan and I rearranged our normal studio times so that I would have the opportunity to observe in other classrooms around the school.  The children went to the studio today for two hours instead of their usual one hour slot on Monday or Tuesday.  In the studio they were studying the illustrations from the books written by the authors that we are studying in Story Workshop.  In Mrs. Grotjan’s second classroom space, the students were given free exploration time. The students explored many materials including musical instruments and light tables.  The children were able to do something different today while I was able to learn from the other great teachers and children in our building!

As you have heard, there was a mysterious leak at the Children’s Museum that we were invited to investigate.  I know we shared some of the story from our trip already, but I wanted to give more detail to what the students have been working on.  When we were at the museum the students were in different groups according to different museum exhibits that had water: Water Clock, Dock Shop, Pond, Aquarium, and Cannon.  In their groups they gathered data about the water from their site.  It was so exciting to see the children using the science tools that we had been using in class.  They were able to share information about reading the thermometers and using the hydrometers with the volunteers leading the groups from the museum.

When we returned to school each group had data to share.  We spent time talking in our groups and then sharing information with the class.  We also had a water sample from each exhibit at the museum.  We were able to recreate the stain with the water samples to see if we could figure out which exhibit made the stain.  After analyzing the data and looking at our recreated stains our class agreed that the aquarium had to be the exhibit that was leaking.  We also, received a note from Mrs. Clark’s class letting us know that they made the same conclusion!

Today we started writing letters to the museum to tell them what we think about the leak and share our data to support our conclusion. We’ll revise and edit our letters later this week!

Today we accomplished so many things I thought it would be helpful to hear a little bit about each part of our day!

Morning Meeting:Before Morning Meeting we were very excited to notice that it was snowing! All of the students took a look out the window to watch the snow. During our meeting Daysia shared a book with us about responsibility.  We started discussing what it means to be responsible last week and we are continuing to explore what it means to be responsible in our classroom and school community.  Daysia’s book sparked great conversations of ways that everyone can show that they are responsible.

Reader’s Workshop:  We have been working on comparing and contrasting different texts.  Today we started to read a western version of Cinderella called “Cindy Ellen.”  The students enjoyed finding the similarities and differences between this book and the traditional Cinderella.

Word Study: Our small groups are off and running! It’s exciting to see the kids engaged in all sorts of activities including sorts, games, and making words.  I have also been able to meet with small groups during this time and start targeting specific needs.

Story Workshop: We have been reading books by the six authors that are a part of our author’s study for the past few weeks.  (Eric Carle, Arnold Lobel, Robert McCloskey, Margaret Wise Brown, H.A. Rey, and Beatrix Potter) Today the students had time to explore many of their books on their own.  In the next few days the students will be divided up into groups for each author and we will look specifically at that author’s craft.  This will lead to the students creating a piece inspired by their author as well as a study of editing, revision, and publishing!

Math Workshop: We are continuing to explore place value by building numbers with base ten blocks and breaking numbers apart.

Science Project:  We worked together last week and analyzed our data from the museum.  The students solved the mystery of the leak and decided that we need to write letters to the Children’s Museum to let them know.  More to come on how we wrap up our Children’s Museum trip soon!

In several of our classes, this week involved going deeper into project work, or in some cases, introducing new projects. The students really enjoy working on projects, and this week has given us a glimpse into how beneficial project work can be, and how much students can learn while having fun at the same time.
In Mrs. Argus’ class this week, we began a new teacher-driven project about listening and sound. We are researching whether we can affect and potentially improve the students’ behavior, communication, and listening skills through their investigation of sound waves and the human aural system.
We initiated the project today by allowing the children to explore various tools and materials they can use to make sound. We spread out a large sheet of paper with writing materials to have them write or draw what they heard. Interestingly enough, several students drew their sounds as waves before we even offered any explanation of the way sound works. I’m interested to see what effect all this exploration and discussion will have on their own listening habits.
In Mrs. Bucher’s class, the students have been studying weather, and since Hurricane Sandy happened recently, they have used this event to enhance their learning experience. The students have decided to make a play about hurricanes and hurricane safety. They plan to charge “admission” into the show and then donate the money to help hurricane victims. Through this project work, the students have been able to connect their learning to the real world experiences that are happening. It is exciting to see them become interested and excited to learn about weather, make weather experiments, and help the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
In readers workshop, the students in Mrs. Bucher’s class have learning a new strategy to add to their toolbox: flippy dolphin. Miss Jeffrey and Mrs. Bucher have been teaching the students about short and long vowel sounds, so the students can use flippy dolphin to try an unknown word using a short vowel sound and then “flipping” it to a long vowel sound to see which one makes sense. The students have used this strategy many times and even found examples of this is Miss Wessels’ read aloud!
In Miss Cegielski’s class, the students have been working on a project about science. They learned about and explored various science tools such as pipets, magnifying glasses, thermometers, and hydrometers. The students were particularly interested in water, so that has become the focus of the project. Yesterday they took a field trip to the Children’s Museum. To prepare for the trip, they practiced using hydrometers and measuring the density of different types of liquids – plain water, salt water, and gatorade. They learned that the more “stuff” there is in the water, the more dense it is. They received a sample of water that leaked from an exhibit at a museum, and before the trip they all got to guess what type of water it was by comparing the stain to some other stain samples, including water, water with glue, saltwater, and saltwater with glue. They decided the water that made the stain must have a higher density than pure water, because the stain had some “stuff” in it.
Then yesterday at the Children’s Museum, the children split up into groups and went to the different exhibits, testing the water with thermometers and hydrometers. Today we had the kids analyze their data, and we made a chart as a class, listing the temperature and the density of each water sample. Using that data, they were able to tell that the leak was coming from the aquarium exhibit, because that sample had the highest density. The children were really excited to have “cracked the case.” They also got a note from Mrs. Clark’s class, saying that they had come to the same conclusion. The students asked Miss Cegielski if they could go back to the Children’s Museum to investigate further. 😉 Obviously we won’t be able to take another field trip anytime soon, but it was so cool to see that the students were so excited about this project and wanted to keep investigating and learning more. It’s such a great testament to the power of the Project Approach.
By Cayla Weese, Ashlee Hammer, and Kara Gitskin

We had an awesome day at the Children’s Museum.  Our scientists were engaged in the scientific method and using different tools to test the water from various museum exhibits.  It was a rich day filled with learning and fun! Tomorrow we will be analyzing the data we collected and drawing conclusions about where the leak came from.  More to come about our discoveries later this week!